


The Nightmare Twins

by ShiTiger



Series: The Nightmare Prince [3]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Twins, preslash suggested, transgender character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 20:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14064495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShiTiger/pseuds/ShiTiger
Summary: The first time Jack Frost met the nightmare twins, he hadn’t even known they were two different people.





	The Nightmare Twins

The first time Jack Frost met the twins, he hadn’t even known they were two different people. They appeared to him as Pitch Black, the self-proclaimed ‘Nightmare King.’ The second time, they’d taken down the Sandman in one fell swoop.  And the third time, they had managed to lure him down to their lair… taunting him with his memories.  Testing him.  Distracting him. 

Yes, it had just been a distraction.  Easter had been ruined by the night-mares.  The Guardians had cast Jack away, like he was nothing.  That was why he had decided to retreat to the South Pole – a place where he could unleash his anger and sorrow without harming anyone.

“We thought this might happen,” a familiar voice whispered from behind him.   Jack spun around, searching for the source of the words.  “They never really believed in you. We were just trying to show you that.  But _we_ understand you, Jack,” Pitch assured him.

“You don’t understand anything!” Jack yelled, attacking the shadow man with his powers.  Pitch shot back, which resulted in their cold and darkness blending together to form a thorny tower of black ice.

“No? You think we don’t know what it’s like to be _cast out_?  To not be believed in?  To long for a **family**?” the nightmare wielder said, his shoulders slumping in his own self-misery – or so it seemed. 

Jack stared down his staff at the boogeyman in confusion.  Pitch, for once, seemed genuinely sincere.  But then again, the spirit of nightmares had managed to trick him before, and that had not ended well.

“All those years in the shadows, we though – ‘No one else knows what this feels like.’  But now we see that we were wrong.” Pitch smiled warmly at him, all the while stepping closer.  “You don’t have to be alone, Jack.  **We** believe in you.  And soon, you will believe in **us** , too.”

“What do you mean?” the winter spirit asked, unconsciously lowering his staff.

The bogeyman smirked, raising his arms to allow his powers to engulf his body.  When the dark, sandy ribbons evaporated, Jack was left staring at two different people that possessed the same ashen skin and golden eyes as Pitch.

“Wow,” Jack whispered, staring at the pair in disbelief.  The one on the right had flowing ebony hair that trailed down to her waist, and she was dressed in the style of a gothic lolita.  The one on the left was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and black shorts, and clearly favored a more boyish hairstyle.

“You can’t trust adults, Jack.  They’ll always betray you,” the lolita insisted, taking a step toward him.

“You’re… you’re…”

“Twins,” the tomboy commented calmly from behind her sister.

“I am Blackie,” the lolita stated, giving him a side-curtsy.  “And this is my brother, Pitch.”

“Brother?” Jack stared at the other twin in bewilderment.

“I, um…” Pitch stammered, a shimmer of ebony now dusting his pale cheeks. “I’m a boy.  I was just born in the wrong body.”

“Oh, right.” Jack rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Enough about us, Jack. We’re here because we have a proposition for you,” Blackie insisted, eyeing him like he was some kind of exotic animal. 

“You’re like us, Jack,” Pitch whispered, giving him a timid smile.

“You should join us, Jack.  Together, we can make the world believe in us again.  ALL of us!” the lolita boasted, circling around him.  “Look at what we can do!  What goes together better than cold and dark?  We’ll give them a world where everything, **_everything_** is…”

“Pitch Black?” Jack asked, his mind casting back to Sandy’s funeral.

“And Jack Frost, too,” Pitch piped up, looking both shy and hopeful at the idea.

Jack closed his eyes, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. Then he fixed the pair with an intense glare.  “You KILLED Sandy, and now you want me to join you?  How insane do you think I am?”

The twins’ eyes widened at his words.  Pitch wrapped her… no, _his_ arms around himself, gazing back at Jack with a look of shame.  Blackie, on the other hand, held her ground. “We didn’t **_mean_** to kill him.  We were just tired of him looking down on us.  We wanted to make him a creature of darkness – like us,” the lolita attempted to explain.

“You shot him with an arrow,” Jack stated angrily.

“He wasn’t supposed to die,” Pitch spoke up, his arms still wrapped around himself. “Sandy was our other half, Jack.  The light to our dark.”

“And Pitch might have had a crush on him,” Blackie interrupted, much to her twin’s embarrassment.

“Blackie!”

“But none of that matters now. He’s gone.  And now it’s ** _our_** time to shine.” The lolita stepped forward once again, holding out a hand to Jack. “Join us, Jack.  We won’t offer again.”

Jack took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly.  Staring directly into the girl’s golden eyes, he stated firmly, “No.”

Her face screwed up in anger.  “Wrong answer.”  She lifted an arm from behind her back, revealing Baby Tooth struggling in her closed fist. Jack could see over her shoulder that Pitch was now looking away, clearly unwilling to get involved.  Coward.

“Let her go!”

“No.  You have a bad habit of interfering with our plans.  Give me the staff, Jack,” the girl demanded.

Jack raised his staff, letting his powers flow into it.  The wood surged with blue and white energy, but he couldn’t fire without hurting Baby Tooth.

“Hand it over, and I’ll let her go,” Blackie promised, her voice as smooth as glass.

Jack sighed, his shoulders slumping as he handed over the staff. “Now let her go,” the winter spirit insisted.

Blackie seemed to think it over.  “No.”

Jack’s eyes widened, and he saw Pitch look up with the same startled expression on his face.

“Blackie… you promised,” Pitch attempted to reason, but he was clearly unable to truly stand up to his sister’s wrath.

“No.  Jack refuses to join us.  He wants to be _alone_ ,” Blackie tossed over her shoulder. Her eyes then returned to the winter spirit, her voice as cold as ice. “So **BE** alone.”

It was at that moment that Baby Tooth did something extremely courageous.  She stabbed the dark-haired girl in the hand with her sharp nose, only to be flung away in anger.  Jack reached for her, but found himself clutching his chest a moment later when a bolt of intense pain surged through him.  Blackie, in her fit of rage, had snapped his precious staff in two.  With a wave of darkness, she flung him against a wall of ice, allowing him to drop into the cavern below. 

Jack struggled to keep his eyes open.  Before losing consciousness, he thought he saw the second twin looking down at him, sadness etched on his face.  Something clattered down onto the snow next to him, but he was too far gone to see what it was.

* * *

_(Jack regains his memories, and races to save the day, only to be caught up in the events that soon followed.)_

“You DARE have fun in MY presence!” the spirit of fear declared, glaring at the children and Guardians playing around them.  “I am the bogeyman! And you will FEAR me!”

Jack turned quickly, only to wince as Pitch Black went straight through Jamie. 

“NOOOO!” The shadow man turned to flee, desperate to escape the realization that he was no longer feared.  Jack was quick to follow, and the Guardians were right behind him.  Down a slope, through the woods, and straight onto a frozen lake.   That was where Pitch Black finally slipped up – in the most literal sense. 

“Leaving the party so soon?” North asked, towering over the intimidated Nightmare King.

“That’s enough,” Jack interrupted, putting himself firmly between his teammates and the cowering form of Pitch Black. 

“Jack, what are you doing?” Bunny asked.  The others were looking at him in confusion, as well. 

“Pitch Black isn’t who you think he is,” the winter spirit began, despite the look of terror that came over the dark spirit’s face at his words.  That fear turned to anger, and Jack had a feeling that Blackie was now more in control than her brother.  

“Don’t you dare, Jack!” Pitch shrieked.

Numerous eyebrows rose in amazement at the rather feminine voice emanating from their most dangerous enemy, but Jack didn’t wait for Pitch Black to get a second wind.  Kneeling down, he held out his hand to the Nightmare King.  “You both deserve to be believed in.  Don’t you think it’s time to stop pretending to be something you’re not?”

The bogeyman seemed to study him, his lips pressed into a thin line.

“Come on.  I know they’re adults,” Jack nodded over his shoulder at the Guardians, before continuing, “but they’re not that bad.  Give them a chance.”

“And if we refuse your offer?” the shadow man asked, practically pouting at him. 

“Look, you both caused a lot of damage.  I can’t just NOT tell them.  But I’m sure they’ll be more lenient once you’ve explained your side of the story,” Jack offered, shrugging his shoulders.

“Okay, now I’m even more confused,” Bunny grumbled from behind the winter spirit’s back.

“We are still the spirit of fear, Jack.  You will not deny us our purpose,” Pitch Black stated, pushing himself to his feet.  His robed form towered over the winter spirit menacingly.

“I get it, believe me.  People being afraid of you is something of a power rush. When the Guardians began to spread their hope over the world, you went from feeling strong and in control, to weak and forgotten almost overnight. No wonder you hated them for so long.  But - at least you had each other,” Jack tried to reason. “I was alone for a very long time, too, so I understand what it feels like.  But Sandy’s alive, and the children are safe, so now we can start moving past all this. 

“Jack, you can’t just forgive Pitch like that,” Bunny argued.

“It’s true. He nearly ruined us, Jack,” Tooth added.

“Ah, but Jack is seeing something we are not,” North interrupted, his interested gaze firmly on Pitch Black.  Unnoticed, Jamie and his friends had finally arrived, and they were both curious and eager to see what would happen next.

In the end, it was Sandy who made the first move, despite having been killed – or nearly killed, by the bogeyman in the first place.  The golden spirit floating forward until he was at Jack’s side.  He extended his hand to his opposite with a gentle smile. The shadow man eyed him distrustfully.

“Pitch… Blackie…” the winter spirit said, raising an eyebrow impatiently.

“Fine,” the bogeyman drawled, rolling his eyes.  Black ribbons began to form around the Nightmare King’s feet, swallowing his form only a moment later.  Many gasps floated around the clearing as the onlookers watched the column of darkness stretch into the air above where Pitch had been standing.  But then, much to their combined shock and amazement, a single ashen hand emerged from within the writhing ebony strands.   It extended forward, touching Sandy’s own hand lightly, as if uncertain.  The ribbons dissolved, leaving two figures standing on the ice before them. 

Pitch drew back his arm slowly, cradling it to his chest.  Blackie, on the other hand, was more vibrant in her annoyance at the situation.

“I hate you,” the lolita insisted, glaring up at Jack with a vengeance.

“We’ve been fighting ankle-biters this entire time!” Bunny exclaimed, gaping at them in shock.

Blackie turned her glare on him.  If looks could kill, the Easter Bunny would be six feet under.  “We’re physically fifteen, rabbit.  Hardly children.”

“Awwww, they’re so adorable!” Tooth gushed.

The sandman easily summoned a bowler hat and bowed toward the twins, but his eyes were focused on young Pitch who, in turn, was having a hard time meeting his gaze.

“Guys, meet the nightmare twins: Blackie and Pitch,” Jack announced, spreading his arms wide.

“Don’t think I won’t make you suffer for this, Jack,” Blackie hissed under her breath.

Jack took a step back from her withering gaze. Thankfully, they were interrupted by the children. 

“You’re so pretty!”

“I love your dress!”

“You look like an anime character!”

Blackie blinked at the kids that had managed to get up close without her notice. “Thanks… Go away now.” She flicked her hand at them in a shooing motion, but it didn’t work.  She glanced over her shoulder for help from her twin, but it only served to draw the children’s attention to him instead.

“Are you suuuuure you’re a boy,” Claude asked.  “Cause you seem too pretty not to be a…”

 “I’m a boy!” Pitch squeaked, darting behind his sister. 

“Uh, children are annoying,” the lolita grumbled, her shoulders drooping as the kids continued to circle them.

The Guardians just watched the proceedings, unable to hide their amused smiles.

* * *

And so their family grew.  It didn’t take very long to begin encouraging the twins to spend more time with them, especially when Jack officially became the Guardian of Fun. 

Blackie was more versed in crafting nightmares for adults – a skill she could fully focus on now that the twins didn’t need to hide themselves as a single person.  Pitch, on the other hand, could often be found floating on his own cloud of dark ribbons, spreading far more gentle nightmares to children that needed them.  It wasn’t surprising to see him paired up with Sandy, who had eagerly become a kind of mentor to him.

“You have done good, Jack,” North assured his young teammate one evening.

“I have?” the winter spirit asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yes.  Someday, Pitch will be ready to be a Guardian himself,” the larger man insisted.  “I feel it, in my _belly_.”

“What about Blackie?”

“Ah… she would not make a good Guardian of Fear for children.  Just last month, she put on SAW when it was her turn to pick movie, remember?” North commented, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah.  She definitely likes all the blood and gore stuff.  Poor Pitch was jumping at every noise for nearly a week,” Jack sighed.

“Exactly.  Pitch is good at crafting nightmares for children.  Blackie is better for adults.  This is good.  Having the spirit of fear doing both is not best choice.  That, I suspect, is why Manny is choosing twins,” North stated.

“Jack!  North!  We’re about to put in the movie.  Get your butts down here!” a familiar feminine voice shouted up at them.

“Coming!” the winter spirit yelled back.

“Yes, we should go before she gets mad. That girl has temper of a badger at times,” North agreed.

Sharing a smile, the pair slipped out of the private study to join their friends in the workshop for a relaxing movie.  On second thought, maybe they should get Blackie her own private TV room.  ‘When They Cry’ may be an anime, but it is NOT for the faint of heart… or a Guardian of Childhood.

“Nope, that’s it.  I can’t sit through another episode of children murdering each other.  We’re watching a Disney movie,” Bunny insisted, nearly snapping the DVD in half while trying to get it out of the DVD player.  The rest of the group, sans Blackie, breathed a sigh of relief. 


End file.
